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This is in response to recent opinion articles written by the Edwards in La Voz on May 1 and May 22. It is noteworthy to remember that De Anza has a long-standing reputation for outstanding and innovative services for students with disabilities. In fact, students come from a wide geographical area to take advantage of our comprehensive program.

We offer quality services, individualized for people with a wide range of disability-related educational limitations, in an instructional climate known for its receptiveness. The program’s record of outreach, completion and student satisfaction speaks for itself. Our retention and success rates as reported by Institutional Research last year are higher than the college wide averages. More than 102 students with disabilities received degrees, certificates or transferred to four-year universities this year.

Both the disability and educational communities hold the program in high regard as measured by referrals and requests for staff to consult and sit on advisory boards, etc. In fact, as recently as 1999 the Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation team that evaluated De Anza for its official accreditation conferred a “special commendation for the outstanding work done with students with disabilities.” It further cited that “inclusion of . . . students throughout campus was evident to all accreditation team members.” (p. 23 Evaluation Report, 1999)

De Anza’s faculty members provide many appropriate accommodations in the classroom, frequently offering additional individualized assistance or methods to help a student meet the academic standards of a given class. Still, not all faculty members are comfortable or knowledgeable about disability needs. When faculty are reluctant or uninformed, we work with them to engage them in a mutual process.

We regularly reassess services. We encourage and receive constructive suggestions on an on-going basis and, in fact, regularly make changes that are student-initiated. This year we instituted a new captioning service to meet the changing needs expressed by deaf students. Examples of current additional initiatives we are working on includes Measure E funded facilities projects to move off-campus programs to campus locations and cross-campus barrier removal.

We are hiring a full-time assistant technology specialist and a counselor with a specialization in psychological disabilities. Following the passage of AB422 this year, we are establishing procedures with the bookstore to ensure that students can access electronic versions of textbooks. We also provide more than 1,500 test accommodations per year.

We meet or exceed the services and accommodations offered generally at community colleges, and our student feedback is overwhelmingly positive. In fact our complaint rate in the last few years represents less than .2 of our total enrollment. But we know there occasionally will be students who are dissatisfied with us or with other aspects of campus life. Students, too, are sometimes unclear about their responsibilities and obligations. Students are invited to bring problems to their counselor first.

This points to the importance of students working in a cooperative effort to insure that they have correct information, use the procedures in place to receive appropriate accommodations and provide constructive feedback.